Monday, July 23, 2012

In the middle of Vicky Santo's stirring comments during the induction speech for her husband Ron here in Cooperstown a member of our front office leans over to me and says, "what is Byrnes thinking"?

Earlier in the day my wife had pried my phone and tablet from my hands and handed me a camera and her grandfather's Cubs cap. "Its a day to be a fan" she said, so I had no idea what he was talking about.

I had to wait until I got back to the hotel last night to learn that Josh Byrnes had made his third critical mistake regarding Carlos Quentin.

Byrnes' Critical Mistakes

1st - He traded a young Quentin to the White Sox as GM of the Diamondbacks

2nd - He traded two very good prospects (Castro and Hernandez) to the White Sox for an older and injury prone Quentin as the new GM of the Padres

Now, to compound those two huge mistakes, Byrnes gives Carlos Quentin a 3 year $30 million extension with the San Diego Padres.

2013 - $9.5 million

2014 - $9.5 million

2015 - $8.0 million

$3 million buyout of $10 million 2016 option

For a low budget team expected to have a $60-70 million payroll in 2013, Byrnes gives a 3 year deal that will take up 15+ percent of the teams total payroll to:

You alsohave to remember that Quentin is more expensive than just his salary. Someone else has to play the 60 + games he will miss due to injuries each season and the 180 + innings per season he will be out of games because of his bad defense and you have to pay those players too.

Byrnes' Guarantees

Byrnes has guaranteed that for 60 or more games each of the next 3 seasons the Padres will wonder who will be playing in LF. (Quentin is hurt for 1/3 of each season)

Byrnes has guaranteed that the Padres will have one of, if not THE worst LF defense in the league for 2/3 of each of the next 3 seasons. (Quentin is hurt for 1/3 of each season)

Byrnes has also guaranteed that the Padres have no money to sign any real threats with the bat by tying up more than 15% of the payroll in one player. (You cant be a threat when you are on the DL 1/3 of each season and have to be removed in late innings of games for a defensive replacement.)

Byrnes has guaranteed that the Padres will be saddled with Quentin; an expensive, injury prone, poor hitting, defensive liability for the next 3 seasons because they gave him a full no-trade clause.

Carlos Quentin, Bust

Face it Padres fans, Quentin is a bust so far. He has hit just .217 with a .359 slg since a 6 game hot streak ended on 6/5. This after spending the first 2 full months of the season on the DL.

At his current pace, IF he is able to play the rest of the season without a trip to the DL, Quentin will hit for a .232 batting average with 16-17 home runs.

His defense ranks 25th in the league with a .982 fielding percentage and -2 DRS this season and is the worst in MLB since the start of the 2009 season. Even Jesus Guzman has been better in the outfield and that says volumes about Quentin's dearth of skills with the glove.

The question you must ask is what is a player worth that will play 100 games per season and hit .230-.240 with 16-18 home runs while playing horrible defense?

Regardless of Byrnes attempt at justification for signing him, Quentin is not a threat with the bat and he is not protecting the other Padres players in the lineup because:

#1 he was on the DL the 1st 2 months of the season

#2 he is not hitting for either average or power in the past month and a half.

Now, I understand that no other MLB team wants to give up good prospects for Quentin and with good reason (those enumerated above and fact that any team trading for him would not get a draft pick if he left in FA), but that is no reason for Byrnes to compound his mistakes by hamstringing the team with Quentin for 3 more seasons.

The sandwich pick the Padres would have received for making Quentin a qualifying offer in arbitration and then watching him walk in free agency is likely worth more and will be MUCH cheaper than 3 seasons of Quentin in a Padres uniform.

If you get the idea I don't like this signing you are right. I didn't like the trade that brought Quentin to the Padres in the first place and this just piles stupid on top of stupid.

The only good that may come of this is that the Padres are showing fans a willingness to hold onto players after years having to trade away good players because of payroll considerations during the Moores' divorce.

It may also mean they will be trading or non-tendering Will Venable, who will be eligible for arbitration for the 2nd time in 2013 and due a raise from his current $1.475 million even though his performance continues to lag far behind his potential. Too much money for a backup outfielder.

I have had my say, now what do you think about the Padres extending Carlos Quentin?

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

My Predictions for the NL West in 2012

Opening Day for the Padres is less than 18 hours away and here is my first post of the new season. Over the next few days I am going to give my predictions for won-loss records, division and wild card winners, award winners and even Padres players production.

Lets start with the won loss records and my pick to win the NL West.

The Reasoning:

The Arizona Diamondbacks combine a good young pitching staff with some great prospects ready at the top levels of their farm system with a good young position players.

Kennedy, Hudson, Collmenter, Cahill and Saunders as the starting 5 with Bauer ready

Upton, Young, Kubel, Parra in the OF

Goldschmitt, Hill, Drew (eventually), Roberts across the IF with Montero behind the plate

Best in the division top to bottom.

The Colorado Rockies are my surprise pick. For one reason - veteran leadership. This team had the talent to win in 2011, but they fell apart under pressure. Tulo and Gonzales are two of the best young players in the league. Helton was hurt and he is a real quiet guy. Not the leader they needed.

In the offseason they added three guys that can not only get the job done, they are great clubhouse guys. Now they have Jamie Moyer, the ageless wonder, out there in the starting rotation to provide an example of what it takes for the pitching staff. They also added Scutaro & Cuddyer to provide the example for the position players.

I still don't think they have enough to win the division, but they will surprise alot of people. Think Padres of 2010.

The San Francisco Giants do not have enough offense or enough depth to compete for the division title. Yes, they have an outstanding top end to their starting pitching corp with The Freak, Cain and Bumgarner. After that it drops off precipitously to Zito and ???. They dont even know who will step up enough to fill the #5 slot.

Like the starting pitching, the offense is great at the top with The Panda and Posey, but falls off quickly after those two with no one in the wings to fill spots in the batting order when injuries strike.

Pagan, Cabrera, Huff, Schierholtz across the OF.

Bolt, Burris, Crawford, Sandoval across the infield with Posey behind the plate part time. Looks like he will get time at 1B this season.

Just not enough to win in a consistently tough NL West.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are a one trick pony. They have 3 great players and 21 scrubs on their roster. Kemp, Ethier and Kershaw are good enough to keep them out of the cellar, but not much more.

Their new ownership group has deep pockets, but they have invested 2.15 BILLION so far in the team and have another 350-500 million still to invest in the ballpark renovations.This team will get worse before it gets better.

The San Diego Padres are an extremely young team that the front office tried to graft in a couple of veterans that just dont fit.

In Stauffer, Volquez, Luebke, Richard, Moseley. (I know Stauffer is not starting opening day, but he is the Padres number 1) the Padres have a good young pitching staff with a very good young prospect in the pen (Bass) and at least 4 pitchers within a year of making the staff. Kelly, Weiland, Erlin and Sampson will be ready soon and will slot somewhere in the middle of that rotation - #2 to #4.

Their pen was totally made over in the last year with Street, Cashner and Owings taking the place of Bell, Adams and LeBlanc. i believe the pen will be just as strong with more depth since Thatcher is healthy, 2 members of that pen from last season, Spence and Hamren, will be in the minors this season and two others with huge talent, Brach and Boxberger, will start the year in AAA.

Guzman, Maybin, Denorfia, Venable across the OF. Quentin and Blanks will also play PT in the OF. Quentin because of current injuries, Blanks because of past injuries.

Alonso, Hudson, Bartlett, Headley in the infield with Hundley behind the plate.

Those are my thoughts, What are yours?

Websoulsurfer

The Padres pick Owings, Hermida and Parrino to fill last 3 spots on 25 man roster

Fair Warning. 6 hours on planes followed by two Arrogant Bastards and I am a little riled up.

I am so fucking sick of teams picking who is going to be on the team by who has more experience or by financial considerations.

WTF happened to the best player getting the spot?

With ALL THREE choices for the last 3 spots on the 25 man roster, the Padres picked the WORSE player. The one that absolutely sucks.

The Padres added Owings, who fucking sucks

Hermida, who fucking sucks

Parrino who not only fucking sucks but has no upside

To make matters worse they have had to put Jose De Paula, on the restricted list and drop at least one other player from the 40 man roster, which means they will both be subject to being claimed.
Fucking stupid. Really fucking stupid.

And what excuses are the Padres trying to foist on fans for being so unbelievably stupid?

"Parrino is used to being a backup in the minors so he will be mentally more prepared to be a backup in the majors." Lets see if I get this correct. He sucked so bad that he couldn't even start in the MINORS, so you are going to give him the backup role behind TWO injury prone players that you KNOW are not going to play 250 combined games? WTF are you thinking?

Here
is the real reason you lying sack of garbage. Cabrera will be eligible for
arbitration if he spends the entire season in the Majors. THAT is why Parrino is on the team now.

"Owings can be a long reliever." WTF is that? WHO THE FUCK CARES that he can be a long reliever if he is going to pitch like he has recently? The guy is a loser. LOSER! 7.62 ERA and got WORSE as camp went on instead of better with 7 hits and 4 runs in his final two outings. 2.1 ip, 7 hits, and 4 earned runs. That's nearly an 18.00 ERA. 18!

Even Worse, Owings has an era over 5.00 over the past 4 years of regular season play. WTF is there to like about him? Please don't even TRY to trot out some fucking excuse that he can hit. ANY of the Padres young pitchers can be a long reliever and do better than a 5.00 ERA. Bass, Kelly or Weiland would have done great in that role. Even Wade Fucking LeBlanc could do that AND he hits better than Owings AND he was cheaper.

No fucking excuse for Owings making this team. None.

"The 80 year old veteran we brought in for locker room presence is hurt" Don't even get me started on Hermida. That bum hit .211/.272/.354 for 4 teams over the past 2 seasons. Why 4 teams? He fucking sucks, that's why.

Hermida had a good spring training, when it doesnt count, just like he did the last two years in spring training

(.450

/.500

/.650

/1.150 and

.342

/.458

/.632

/1.090 respectively)

and then once the regular season starts he sucks. Every year.

AND HE IS GETTING WORSE!!!!!!!!I thought the point of the game was to WIN, not to put the worst fucking possible team on the field because they are "used to being a backup" or "can be a long reliever." I guess not in the La-La Land they call Padres baseball.

So who DIDN'T Make the Team So These LOSERS Can Play?

Brad Brach
Brach had not only a great spring, but he has tremendous upside. He BELONGS on the team.

Everth Cabrera
Cabrera was the starter here for a 90 win team, he has upside, Black even said he was the better player, and while he sucked in spring ball, is a better fielder, hitter and baserunner than Parrino. He belongs.

James Darnell
All he did was hit .295/.338 in spring ball after a cup of coffee in 2011 where he hit better than Hermida did.

Come on Padres, if you want to win, let the kids play! Stop giving us washed up veterans and sorry excuses.

Enough from me. Tired of sitting on the side watching these morons run this team. To think they used to write my paycheck. Thank goodness I just have to live in San Diego, not work for these guys anymore. Maybe a good ownership group will come in and save Padres fans like RAK. We can still dream of Mark Cuban buying the team right?.